OG Wiggles, Polish Club @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide 7/5 2022
The legacy of The Wiggles lives on as the OG Wiggles – Anthony, Greg, Murray and Jeff – Reunion Tour finished its tour in Adelaide at the Entertainment Centre. There is denying the impact that The Wiggles have had on children’s television and entertainment here in Australia and abroad. It almost seems as if it’s a part of growing up as children right through to parenting children that The Wiggles is part of households everywhere. This was a fun show aimed at the 15+ age group and I haven’t experienced anything quite like this seeing mature adults singing, jumping around and dancing to the music of The Wiggles just as they did when they were much, much younger.
Polish Club opened the night and as front man David Novak said “just because it’s earlier doesn’t mean we can’t get naughty”. Boys On Vacation, Stop For A Minute and Whack got things going at a blistering pace. Don’t Fuck Me Over as Novak mentioned is their “swearingest” song not Fruit Salad Fucky Fucky as John-Henry Pajak suggested. The mobile phone lights were switched on to which Pajak said not waste your battery as The Wiggles set list was like fifty songs. Pajak spoke of all the backstage mayhem with “Wags the dog shitting everywhere, c’mon Jeff” and a “pirate tickling you, that’s fucked up”. Plenty of sings including the likes of Clarity, Breakapart and a bit of fun with the Chicken Dance and Fruit Salad. Insert some “prop comedy” with Apples And Bananas to finish their set.
Rather than an intermission/ change over in the half hour break it was a thirty minute DJ set featuring John & Lenny Pearce (Justice Groove) who got everyone up and out of their seats to get their groove on with plenty of popular tunes to dance to and if you were a bad dancer there was every likelihood you’d be on Dance Cam.
OG Wiggles! There was plenty of noise and excitement as they took to the stage and asked Adelaide “are you ready to wiggle?” Wags The Dog, Captain Feathersword, Henry The Octopus, Dorothy The Dinosaur were all there and even the new cast as well in a supporting role. Even the original Big Red Car made an appearance. It was quite the site seeing everyone’s inner child unleashed for the night as they performed all the favourites including the likes of Fruit Salad, The Monkey Dance, Can You (Point Your Fingers and Do The Twist), Rock-a-Bye Your Bear and it wouldn’t be a Wiggles show without Wake Up Jeff!
There was plenty more to come and whether it was the likes of Joannie Works With One Hammer, Five Little Ducks and Shake Your Sillies Out to the more modern day classics given The Wiggles touch up Pub Feed (The Chats) and Triple J Hottest One Hundred number one Elephant (Tame Impala) there was plenty there to entertain and kept the masses engaged. The mobile phone lights were switched on for I love It When It Rains and was quite the spectacle. Murray’s guitar solo was unreal featuring Highway To Hell, Enter Sandman, Smoke on the Water, Smells Like Teen Spirit and Stairway To Heaven. Even Eagle Rock made the highlights reel for me.
The encore was fantastic with Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga, Big Red Car followed by a snippet of Que Sera, Shaky Shaky and the bring the house down Hot Potato. It was an impromptu Happy Birthday To You sing-a-long to Anthony followed by Romp Bomp A Stomp to close what was a fun night for all ages. Murray did say we’ll see you again so maybe the door is still left ajar for another performance sometime soon.
Live Review by Rob Lyon